Activists settle in for another night

The latest update from Gavin as they settle in for another night on the smokestack.

It was quite a chilly night with 5 people sharing 3 sleeping bags huddled together, trying to avoid the worst of the wind. This morning the sun has been shining which makes all the difference.

As the smoke and CO2 billows out of the smokestack above us and the one next to us, the sun is casting long shadows of smoke and chimneys across the landscape and off to the horizon. The contrast is quite stark: for once the invisible and deadly mix of gases is immediately evident across the Polish countryside.

This is different from climate change, where the impacts on Polish weather, Chinese agriculture and sinking Pacific islands will be much more apparent in a few years time. Yet the coal this power station burns today is driving those impacts.

To drive this message home, this afternoon we hung a huge banner off the smokestack with the words 'Quit Coal. Save the Climate', and also did a few interviews with various local and international journalists.

And to top the day off, a few of us donned gas masks and headed right to the very top of the stack for a close up look at the toxic soup emanating from the bowels of this coal plant.